Spirit of a Festival
by SilentJo
Summary: A New Year approaches and Hiyori and her two special friends, Yato and Yukine, make plans to attend the annual New Year's shrine visit and festival. But when Hiyori suddenly becomes ill and can't go to the festival, it leaves the guys wondering what to do. Should they go to the festival without her? Or perhaps... bring the festival to her...


"Yato! Yukine! I was wondering if you would like to go to the New Year's shrine visit and festival with me tomorrow?"

"Is that the one we missed last year because Mr. Delivery God wanted to cash in on washing a dog house?" replied Yukine, sarcastically.

"Hey now! You can't make fun of an honest job request like that! Anyone who requests my time and attention should be respected, no matter what the wish!" said Yato. "And that was also the night we had to battle all those phantoms before meeting up with Hiyori. Which was a diversion for Nora to..." His words trailed off as he remembered how Nora had taken Hiyori's memories of him from her. He was so upset when she couldn't recognize him, and fought as hard as he could to get her memories back. Luckily she was able to remember him somehow, but she would always blush and get embarrassed whenever he asked her how she managed to remember him, so he stopped asking eventually. He was just happy that things were back to normal and the three of them were having fun together again.

Hiyori answered back, "Yes, it's the same festival. I'll be advancing in school and would like to pray for good grades and good luck with the new school year.

"I don't see why you have to go to the old man for those wishes when you have me," Yato said as he stretched his arm around Hiyori and pulled her close. "I'll make sure your year goes by without a hitch!"

Hiyori blushed as she pushed him away from her, "Considering you kidnapped my body and made a huge scene for my high school debut, I'm going to lean more towards NOT depending on you for my academic wishes. I just think it'll be nice for us to all have fun at the festival together. I know you two were looking forward to the food stalls last year, and I bet you'd like to see what they have in the other booths as well, right Yukine?"

"I actually can't remember if I've ever gone to one, so yeah, I want to go!" Yukine said, getting excited about what he was going to see there. Just then Yato's phone rang, and he answered it with the usual greeting about being the delivery god that handles jobs big and small. He stepped away from Yukine and Hiyori to speak with the caller.

"I guess you guys are going to be busy, so I'll just see you guys tomorrow. Later!" Hiyori waved at Yukine and Yato as she walked away. Yukine waved back and smiled, he'd been doing really well since he was punished for his bad behavior last year. He was working with Daikoku to earn extra money for him and Yato, getting lessons from Hiyori with her old school books, and performing well as Yato's Regalia whenever phantoms needed to be brought down. This festival sounded like a good reward for all he's done to improve himself.

Yato hung up the phone and walked back over to Yukine. "Where'd Hiyori take off to? Well, we just got a job request so we'll catch up with her later. Come my loyal servant, we must go defend against the bathroom tile mold!"

...

The next day, Yato and Yukine were walking towards the festival entrance when Hiyori called. She sounded ill over the phone, and her voice was weak. Worried, Yato and Yukine teleported into her bedroom to find out what was wrong. They found a surprised Hiyori in bed with her nightclothes on, still holding the phone in her hand.

"Wha- You didn't have to actually come here you know!" she put the phone down and pulled her covers up a little higher. "I was going to tell you guys that I caught some kind of cold or something last night. I'm sorry but I don't think I'll be well enough to go to the festival with you two. But you guys should definitely go, I know you were looking forward to it."

The disappointment in Yukine's face was obvious, even though he tried not to let it show and hurt her feelings. "It-it's okay Hiyori, part of the fun was being able to enjoy the festival together though. I don't think I'd have as much fun if you weren't there."

"You should go and have more fun to make up for what I'll miss, I'm sure with a little bed rest I'll feel better in no time-aahhCHOOO!" Hiyori reached for a tissue from her nightstand and blew her nose. "I'm going to get some sleep, you guys go have a good time, I'll be fine I promise."

Yato stared at her as she curled back up into bed and closed her eyes. He wished there was a way he could heal her sickness and bring her out to the festival, but unfortunately even as a god he didn't have that kind of power over the human body. It wasn't fair that she had to miss out on this event with them a second time. They teleported out of her room and back to the entrance to the festival. Despite the joy and laughter coming from the people in the festival, the two boys looked sullen and sad.

"It looks like so much fun, but nowhere near as fun without her, Yato." Yukine said, staring down the street that was lined on both sides by game booths and food stalls.

Yato looked down the street too and nodded. "You're right Yukine. If our Hiyori is not well enough to enjoy this festival with us, we'll just have to bring the festival to her!"

...

Hiyori was resting in bed peacefully, her head felt heavy and her nose couldn't decide between being stuffed up or runny. She couldn't get much sleep like this, even with the cold medicine her mother brought her earlier. All she could do was lay there facing the window and imagine what her two friends were up to at the festival. She hoped they were having fun, and not getting into too much trouble. Her nose cleared up for a moment, when she thought she smelled grilled chicken and noodles. She heard a noise behind her and she turned around to see Yato and Yukine holding what looked like a giant tray between the two of them.

"Guys, what's going on?! What is that?"

"Well, we didn't want you to miss out on the festival, so we thought we'd bring the festival to you!" said Yato as they walked the tray over to her bed and set it down near the footboard. Hiyori had to sit up in bed and pull her legs towards her to make room without getting her legs caught underneath.

"We weren't exactly sure which foods you would like, so we decided to bring three of everything. We did get to sample some of the foods while we were there, but we figured we should bring one for each of us to eat here with you!" Yukine said excitedly as he began to point out some of his favorites among the huge amount of food sitting before Hiyori.

"I... appreciate the thought guys, I do. But... I just don't have much of an appetite right now. I'm sorry." Hiyori felt bad that they had gone through all the trouble to bring her back something, or well, EVERYTHING, and she wasn't feeling well enough to eat any of it.

Yato stepped to the side of her bed and put the back of his hand against her forehead. "Hmm, you do feel rather hot Hiyori. Yukine, the shaved ice!" Yukine picked up the shaved ice cup and tossed it to Yato. The cup hit the tip of Yato's finger, which spilt strawberry flavored ice all over Hiyori's face and chest. The boys facial expressions dropped to a look of awe and fear.

"Aghh! It's cold!" yelled Hiyori as she squirmed in bed to try to get the cold ice shavings off of her. She kicked her legs out as a reflex and sent the tray full of food flying off of the bed. Yukine did his best to catch most of it but by the time she had gotten herself under control, festival food was seen in all corners of her room. She looked around at the mess, then looked at the boys, her face a mixture of strawberry-scented anger and exhaustion.

"Uhhh, we should probably clean this up." said Yato as he watched Hiyori nod her head in agreement.

"I... I don't even know what to say... I'm going to try to get more rest, make sure this is all cleaned up before you go. The last thing I need is my parents wondering how this food got here." She grabbed a towel that Yukine had retrieved and offered to her, wiped most of the now melted strawberry ice from her face and clothes, then turned her back to them and closed her eyes. She could hear them picking up the food as she tried to tell herself that they were only trying to be nice.

After the boys finished cleaning up their mess, they transported back to the festival, in lower spirits than they were before.

"I really thought that would be a good idea, why didn't I think that her sickness would affect her appetite?" Yato said, more to himself than to Yukine, who was staring at the ground with his hands in his coat pockets.

"Maybe the amount of food was the problem, but now what do we do? She's already feeling bad for being sick and missing the festival, and now we probably got her upset with the mess we made on top of it. I don't see how we're supposed to enjoy this when she's miserable."

Yato nodded and looked around them. The food stalls were still busy and crowded, the game booths were pretty active as well. "You know, I think I have an idea of what could cheer her up. How's your throwing arm, Yukine?"

"Throwing arm? What... you don't mean those game booths? Most of those games are rigged! That's what you told me after that guy at the ring toss booth took your money and didn't give you a goldfish!"

"That guy was a loser and a cheat! I'll get my goldie-fish, and he will be my mascot animal! But this is different, this is for Hiyori! Now that we know their real game, beating them should be a snap! Come Yukine, we have cute girly stuff to win!"

...

Hiyori woke up with a sudden urge to use the bathroom, she got out of bed on unsteady legs and shuffled off to the bathroom. She finished and returned to her room, and got back under the covers. She was starting to feel a little better, although her head was still stuffy and ached. The faint smell of festival food lingered in her room, and it made her smile. "They may cause a mess at times, but they really try to show they care. I wish I was well enough to share in the festival with them. Maybe next year..." She yawned and stretched as she turned over and drifted back to sleep.

Yato appeared in her room again, suspiciously without Yukine. He was carrying several large stuffed plushie animals. A kitty cat, a dog, a bear, among other animals. He approached her bed and saw Hiyori sleeping peacefully. He smiled when he looked at her and thought of how happy she'd be when she sees all these cute toys they'd won for her. He carefully placed them around the empty spots on her bed, then backed away to the other side of the room. "Better check on Yukine to see how he's making out." he said as he vanished again. Almost as suddenly as he left, he reappeared with another armful of prizes. "Wow, I knew my Yukine was special, but I didn't think he'd be such a master at those games!" He put the stuffed animals around Hiyori's bed like before, stacking them up when he ran out of room. He disappeared and returned with several more stuffies until there was a mountain of them at the edge of her bed.

Yukine returned with Yato on the last trip, and gasped as he saw the amount of prizes surrounding Hiyori. "Uh, do you think this might be a little much? I know she likes stuff like this, but it may be a little... excessive."

"Nonsense. She's going to love them! I made sure to put all the soft and fluffy ones closest to her, so she'll enjoy them first." Yato said as Hiyori began to stir in bed.

"Yato... is that you?" Hiyori picked her head up off her pillow and opened her eyes. The sun had set already, and her room had grown dark. She saw several unfamiliar silhouettes surrounding her, which made her panic and thrash out to back away from them. Suddenly, the mountain of plush animals began to collapse, completely engulfing her in soft, fluffy toys. She struggled to get out from under them and accidentally fell out of her bed. Fortunately several stuffed bears had fallen to the floor ahead of her and cushioned her fall. Once again, the boys could do nothing but stand there in awe of the events occurring before them.

Hiyori reached up to her nightstand and turned on the lamp to reveal the avalanche of stuffed animals. Yato approached her and offered her a hand standing back up. She took his hand and was pulled effortlessly to her feet. He held her steady as he cleared a spot on her bed and helped her back into bed, sitting up with her back against the pillows and her headboard, then sat down next to her the same way. She couldn't help but blush with him treating her so gently and being so close. And he smelled so nice too... She snapped out of her daze and looked around, "just what is all this Yato? It looks like every prize from a game booth ended up in here!"

He picked up one of the closest animals and held it up to his face. "That's because it did. Yukine was playing in one of the game booths at the festival and was so good he won all of the big prizes. We just wanted you to not feel so bad about missing the festival. But it just seems like we keep making you mad no matter what we do." He held the bear by the back of the neck and put it in front of Hiyori's face, nuzzling the toy bear's nose up to Hiyori's. Yukine started moving the plushies to the corner of her room, then hopped onto the bed and crawled over to Hiyori's other side and cuddled up to her, yawning as he got comfortable.

Hiyori couldn't help but smile. "I don't see how I can feel bad about missing the festival, you guys keep bringing it here to me. And even with the messes, I couldn't be mad at you guys for doing this. I understand why you wanted to cheer me up, and it's just funny how things ended up with food and stuffed animals covering my room. I can't be mad with you when I know you were just trying to bring the spirit of the festival here. And at least we got to spend some time together today, so it wasn't such a bad day after al...aaahhhCHOOO!"

Yato smiled as he picked a tissue out of the box on her nightstand and passed it over to her. "Yeah, it wasn't so bad at all." He brought the stuffed bear back over in front of him and looked at it. He felt pressure on his shoulder and looked to see Hiyori lean against him and fall asleep. He put his arm around her as her head rested against his chest, he pulled the covers up around her and smiled. "Not a bad day after all."


End file.
